Hapag Ihaw Ihaw

Pata - Fried Pork Hock

I am one that would try out a new place to eat if someone tells me that the food is good and authentic. So, one day I decided to dine at this Filipino restaurant on Fraser Street in Vancouver. I have previously dined in two other Filipino restaurants in Vancouver and found both the restaurants' cuisines to be authentic. But yet again, I am not really hundred percent familiar with Filipino cuisines, especially with its' flavours, taste, ingredients and recipes.

As I understand Filipino cuisines in general, are quite similar to many Malay cuisines, except that they are sweeter. Filipino cuisines tent to use more sugar just like the North Eastern Malay cuisines. And also lesser used of chilli and spices.

Barbecue Pompano

When we got there at Hapag Ihaw Ihaw, the diner was rather small. Only able to accommodate about twenty people at any one time the most. It was really tight in the small diner. Once we got our seats, we ordered immediately because we were really hungry after the twenty minutes wait.

The list on the menu was short and not really a large range. More of a family run business. Our main cuisine was the Pata, Fried Pork Hock which was highly recommended. When the waiter served us with the pork hock plater, my first impression was it was not going to be as good as the other Filipino restaurant. The fried pork seems to be too dry. The meat was over fried.

Chicken Chop

The second cuisine we ordered were the barbecue pompano which looked and taste like a common home cooked cuisine. In my opinion, this fish cuisine was too plain and simple to be served in a restaurant. Especially, considering the price that customers pay for. The third cuisine was a slight improvement over the fish cuisine. It was the chicken chop and thats it. Served with some sliced pickled cucumbers. And as we arrived close to closing time, a lot of the cuisines were not available anymore. So, we settled for these three cuisines with a pot of rice. After that we concluded that although the cuisines were authentic but the other Filipino restaurants that we had previously dined at served much better cuisines. They were more flavourful, tastier and larger in portions.